Coming soon, the succah-friendly flats

Hackney Council is building a new housing development with special features to appeal to the local Orthodox community

Hackney Council is building a new housing development with special features to appeal to the local Orthodox community, including succah-friendly balconies.

Most of the balconies at Tower Court in Stamford Hill will be open to the sky rather than stacked above each other as usual.

Open balconies will make life easier for succah-builders since a tabernacle would be religiously invalid if covered.

The block expected to be completed in 2021, will contain Shabbat-compliant lifts along with more four- and five-bedroom homes than would normally be the case on such an estate.

In addition, “the kitchens have been designed to enable a kosher layout,” a council spokesman said.

“The homes have not been designed specifically for the Orthodox Jewish community and will be available and accessible to anyone. But due to the large Orthodox Jewish population in that area, certain aspects have been designed with the needs of that community in mind.”

Tower Court was previously an estate of 67 homes, which was torn down some years ago because of the state of the buildings.

Around a quarter of the 132 new homes, which will replace them, will be available for social rent.

There will be 10 four-bedroom and eight five-bedroom homes on offer.The complex will also house a new station for Hatzolah, the Jewish ambulance service.

The building’s religiously sensitive features result from consultations between the council and the Orthodox community.

Ian Sharer, a long-serving Orthodox Jewish councillor in the borough, said: “An awareness of the religious needs of the Orthodox community is a welcome step forward for Hackney Council”.

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